Technical Abstract:
For more than 100 years the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has supported the generation and compilation of food composition data. Today the Agricultural Research Service, USDA develops and maintains the National Nutrient Data Bank, a repository of food composition data which provides the foundation for most other U.S. food composition database applications including the databases for the U.S. What We Eat in America: NHANES and for epidemiological applications. Values for the more than 7200 foods and up to 140 dietary components may be derived from chemical analysis of representative samples of the foods, obtained from the food industry or scientific literature, or calculated from data for similar foods. Through a collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, USDA has developed the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP) to generate original analytical data for important foods. In 2005 USDA entered into a collaboration with the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements to develop the Dietary Supplements Ingredient Database (DSID) to provide analytical estimates of dietary ingredients (e.g., nutrients) in various popular types of supplements. Both the food and dietary supplements projects employ statistically valid sampling plans, comprehensive quality control, and USDA analytical oversight as part of the program to generate new and updated analytical data. During 2009, data for vitamin D in more than 2700 foods were released. Also, the first release of the DSID was launched in April, 2009. The challenging process of maintaining a dynamic reservoir of accurate, current, and specific estimates for components in foods requires continuous support for food composition research, data generation including studies of variability, and data compilation. Cooperation with the food industry, the scientific community, and government agencies is essential to this process.